Anokata
by OwlsCantRead
Summary: Little snippets and thoughts of various different people in DC as the boss of the Black Organization. Probably OOC or crack depending on the character featured. Anyone's game for the role, no matter how ridiculous, crazy, or stupid it seems.
1. Yusaku

Disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan, because only someone like Aoyama-sensei can remain tight-lipped about such a big secret for over twenty years.

Words in _italics_ indicate thoughts.

Here's a tribute to the many, many guesses and theories as to the true identity of the mysterious Black Org leader that have been made over the years. This will probably range from anywhere between 'unbelievably ridiculous' to 'dark and very screwed up' depending on who the Anokata of the week is. Do expect occasional canon spoilers if you're not caught up with the manga, however.

In case it isn't clear from the summary, absolutely _none_ of this—especially the characterization of some very beloved characters—is meant to be anywhere near ten miles of actual canon. Expect out-of-character moments and possible crack.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Yusaku**

It ended where it all began — at a dimly-lit, unpopulated dark alley in the otherwise bustling amusement park, Tropical Land.

Two years of hiding in the shadows under the identity of Edogawa Conan, one shrunken elementary school kid. Two years of piecing together the tiniest clues to form a barely coherent trail that led to the organization that had ruined his life. Two years of chasing down the members of said criminal organization in a bid to regain his former body.

He'd had many run-ins with the dreaded higher-ups, some of them allies, while others on the other hand were very dangerous foes.

Gin. Vodka. Tequila. Pisco. Vermouth. Kir. Chianti. Korn. Bourbon. Rum.

And above all of those alcoholic-codenamed members was the boss, the mysterious leader of the sinister organization. The Moriarty to his Holmes.

A careful, crafty man to the end. Before the apotoxin, as the Great Detective of the East, he had been able to prove a culprit's guilt and have them confess to their crimes within a day. But to take down the man in charge of a criminal organization so secret that most minor law enforcement agencies were completely unaware of its existence, it had taken him two agonizing years to build his case.

After endless mind games, predictions, and counterattacks, the finale had arrived. He'd gotten his teenage body back using a temporary antidote just in time for the final showdown. With the FBI, Tokyo Metropolitan Police, and countless other various allies behind his back, he had stormed straight into the crow's nest in a bid to end it all.

After a long and drawn out battle with many casualties, it was finally over. Every Organization member in the HQ had either been killed or taken into police custody.

Except for one. The boss. In fact, he hadn't been at the base of operations at all. In the end, after an investigation, they were convinced that the "boss" of the organization had really been a puppethead figure all along. The proof was when they had used the one link they had to the boss, Nanatsu no Ko. After the mail address had been dialed, the mobile phone in the dead second-in-command's pocket rang.

Case closed. Rum and the boss had always been one and the same. It had been the perfect disguise, acting as the number two. There had been no evidence suggesting otherwise.

That was what the FBI had thought, at least. However, he knew otherwise after innocently requesting to examine Rum's mobile phone. But in spite of his objections, he remained silent. When they officially closed the case, he had kept up a forced smile.

One day later, he found himself in Tropical Land. Walking down the dark alley which had robbed him of two years of his life, he slowed his pace down when he saw a man waiting for him there, leaning against the street lamp.

Shinichi had known that he would be there. He'd expected it.

"It was a trick, wasn't it?" he asked, reflexively clenching his fists. It was a rhetorical question, really. Both men knew the answer to that. "You knew about the FBI sting operation in advance. So you made preparations to set up your right-hand man to appear to be the boss. Once the organization was finished, you could start anew with no worries. Nobody would have suspected a thing. If only you hadn't made one critical mistake."

The man by the lamp pole stiffened slightly. Shinichi couldn't see the face behind the mask, but he was almost certain that a smirk was gracing his lips.

"I couldn't help but notice that the phone Rum was carrying was void of any data. It could definitely be because that person was overly cautious and always deleted their mail, but one thing was against that hypothesis. During the sting operation, surely someone would have informed Rum about the fact that they were under attack. We didn't find a walkie-talkie or a pager on their corpse, so that meant that the only line of communication would have been the mobile phone." He folded his arms, a cocky grin on his face. "But in such a dire situation, Rum's first priority wouldn't be to delete the mail. Unless, of course, there was a reason that it had to be deleted. That there had been something so important that Rum would risk leaving themselves open to clear the mailbox."

"Oh?" Although the man was speaking with a heavily filtered voice, Shinichi could hear the unspoken question that was implied by the man's curiosity: _And what would that be?_

"It was a very simple trick, using a function supplied in the settings of every mobile phone, one that most people don't use." He paused for a moment before stating the answer. "Call forwarding. The real boss had redirected his phone calls to his second-in-command. It was why the phone had no data on it when the FBI recovered it… because it was _meant_ to be found. Rum must have been given explicit orders to clear their mailbox and let the phone be found."

Shinichi crossed his arms as his opponent let out a small laugh. He sneered, wishing for just one second that he was Conan again so that he could pull off the trademarked glinting-glasses glare at the man. "You knew that they knew about _Seven Children_ , and that they would use the mail address to confirm the boss' identity. It was a win-win situation for you either way. If Rum had survived the operation, with the phone in their hands the FBI would focus on your second-in-command, making them an excellent diversion for you. If your right-hand didn't make it, it works in your favor as well, for it would appear that the organization had been finished, not realizing that there was one loose end they didn't wrap up."

There was silence as Shinichi finished. Catching his breath, he continued, struggling to maintain his cool as he got to the important part.

"So once I realized that you were still alive, there was only one conclusion I could make. The boss of the organization must have been someone who knew about the sting, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to give those orders in advance. And there was only one person outside of the law agencies that I told about the sting in advance."

Surprisingly, after a long and wild goose chase that led to dead ends for years, the final clue was 100% definitive proof as to the identity of the boss. The stars had all been aligned and pointed him to the person behind it all. But he would never have imagined in a million years that the flashing neon red arrow that pointed him towards the boss shrouded in shadow would lead him to _this person_.

The man straightened up, allowing himself to be fully illuminated under the street light. He was dressed in a black suit with a cape, a top hat atop his head. Perhaps the most defining thing about his attire was the menacing mask with a twisted grin that was affixed over his face.

A fitting replica of a familiar character of a mystery series — the fictional thief, Night Baron.

 _Why did it have to be him!?_

"Tou-san…" Shinichi hissed, glaring daggers at the man in front of him. If looks could kill…

"Why!?" he cried out hoarsely, the despair in his voice evident from just that one single word. Despite all the evidence that he'd compiled and analyzed, Shinichi hadn't wanted to believe it. He couldn't.

Because who would believe that their own father was the one behind everything, the one responsible for destroying the lives of multiple people?

Yusaku took out the Night Baron mask, revealing his face and simultaneously removing the voice-changer at the same time. "Well, well. I suppose it's only natural that you'd have me figured out," he replied, his face impassive.

"Now that I actually think about it, of course it makes sense," he spat bitterly at his father. "In the Sherlock Holmes novels, Professor James Moriarty was a person whom no one had suspected to be the head of the criminal underworld, all because he was so well respected among the public."

Who on earth would even put Kudo Yusaku, famous detective and author of the Night Baron series under the magnifying glass? It was an absurd thought.

"There's no need to flatter me, son—"

"Don't change the topic!" Shinichi's azure eyes were filled with pure rage. "You didn't answer my first question! Why did you do it!?"

Yusaku didn't even flinch at the topic. He replied with a cool and collected tone, "Shinichi, when you're a detective that lived as long as I did, you'll understand the reasons why I did it."

"No, I don't!" he yelled, flinging out his arms to his sides. "What about justice? Weren't you a firm believer of that? Weren't you! Was it all a lie, tou-san?"

Yusaku remained silent, his face unreadable. It was déjà vu for Shinichi all over again. Like Ray Curtis, another pillar of inspiration from his childhood had been smashed into unrecoverable pieces, like a soccer ball hitting a mirror to shards. Seeing that his father wasn't going to explain himself, he closed his eyes and continued. "I came here knowing full well about your intentions. You offered a celebratory party just for the two of us to commemorate the takedown of the organization and just so happened to set the location for the party at the place where I was shrunk?" he grumbled, an irritated expression crossing his face. "Surely you can be more original than _that_ …"

If he imagined hard enough, it would be like one of his normal spats with his eccentric father and obsessive mother, and not with the chief executive of a criminal organization.

It would seem that way to any casual observer, too. Less than twenty meters away, children and parents were frolicking around without a care in the world, unaware of the crazy confrontation of words happening in the middle of public. To them, even if they turned their heads for a passing glance, the conversation of the two mysterious fellows by the lamppost would appear to be nothing more than a mere father-son family bonding activity.

Too bad the reality was anything but.

"Well, Shinichi…" Yusaku was smiling for the first time since the confrontation had started. "What did you honestly expect from me?"

"I don't know, a more believable excuse?" he muttered. "Come on, it was so obviously a trap!"

"And yet you still walked into it?" Yusaku grinned. Compared to a sinister grin of someone like Gin, it was surprisingly scarier to see the boss having a soft grin on his face, one that he always gave out at book screenings.

"Yeah, I'm getting to that." He kept his eye on his father. They were stalling for time, and they both knew it. He'd come in with the knowledge of his father's true identity, and Yusaku had invited him to Tropical Land knowing full well that his son knew.

"That time… when you faked that kidnapping and offered me the option to flee the country. Why did you really do it?"

Yusaku blinked at the question. It didn't take him long to respond, though. "It was a test, you see. I was hoping that you'll pass."

"A test?" He raised an eyebrow. "You were trying to see if I would flee? Are you nuts? You knew me from when I was a real child! I would never run from the truth!"

"Yes, I did know that." Yusaku closed his eyes, and for that brief moment Shinichi was unable to tell what exactly his father was thinking about. "But I still had to make sure. I had to be certain that you would be a worthy opponent."

His face paled. He began to breathe heavily as he absorbed the implications of what his father had just told him.

"It was why the Organization even exists, Shinichi. For decades, I've cracked almost every criminal case imaginable. It eventually got boring, you know? A detective's curiosity never could be contained… you of all people should know this. Even as Conan-kun, you can't help but solve the cases around you as Sleeping Kogoro, right?"

"Grrrr…" he grimaced. His father did indeed had a valid point there.

"It's impossible to stop the thrill. So I decided to up the stakes. I decided to make a case so large and convoluted that no one but the best could ever solve it, a game of wits that befitting only the greatest masters of deduction."

Shinichi's face visibly twitched. His lips remained neutral and unmoving, but his widened eyes revealed the true horror he felt.

"Unable to come up against a worthy adversary, he created his own," Yusaku quoted, referring to himself as he pointed his thumb inwards. "It would appear you understand now. I was hoping for someone to track down and dismantle the organization that I've painstakingly put up. In fact, before you came along, I'd put most of my hopes on Akai Shuichi." He flipped his cape aside with a flourish using his gloved hand. "I must say, Shinichi, I'm impressed. I never would have thought that you would be the chosen one."

"That's what this is all about? A damn challenge? You treat the lives of others like some big chess game?" Shinichi yelled at the man in front of him without restraint. Although the face was that of his father's, the words he spoke were contrary to everything he had ever known about Kudo Yusaku.

Yusaku simply shrugged. "I suppose this is checkmate?" he asked with a smile.

"You bet it is." Shinichi stepped forward, a determined look on his face. With his free hand, he flipped the lid of his watch up and aimed the crosshairs at Yusaku. "It's over, tou-san." The father honorific was spat with distaste.

"I suppose it is." The man himself appeared calm, as he always was, even with a watch armed with a tranquilizer dart aimed directly at his body. "But before we finish off this chapter of the Organization—" Yusaku suddenly gave his son an innocent smile. "Shinichi, do you know how the Night Baron series ends?"

"Barou!" Shinichi sneered, unsure on what his father was playing at. Taking precautions, he held his hand steady to keep the crosshairs locked on his father's body. "You haven't even written the ending for it yet! The novel series is still ongoing!"

"Exactly," he nodded. "The Night Baron series is like a reflection of my life. It will carry on until I either win or lose this game of ours."

"But you already lost." Shinichi smirked. "It's finished."

"That's correct. The organization is gone now, and you have caught me out. It is indeed as you say, I'm finished. But…"

Even though he was saying those words of defeat, Yusaku's body language seemed like he wasn't ready to accept the imminent surrender anytime soon.

"Do you remember how your namesake ended things?" Yusaku chuckled. "Yes, it appears that history is about to repeat itself tonight."

"My… namesake?" Shinichi blinked. What on earth was he talking about?

Before he could utter a reply, Yusaku suddenly broke into a run, his cape fluttering in the wind as he took off in the opposite direction.

"Wait a minute! Stop!" Shinichi fired the dart in his watch, but the shrewd Yusaku held his hand up and used the Night Baron mask as a shield, causing the tranquilizer to harmlessly hit the mask. "Damn it!" he cursed, running after Yusaku, a few precious seconds behind him.

He knew it. His father knew him too well. The reason he had said a cryptic statement was to take advantage of his curiosity as a distraction and use that opportunity to flee. "You won't get away!" he yelled.

Yusaku didn't bother looking back or giving a reply. Using his left hand, he flung the top hat he was wearing back at Shinichi, who nimbly dodged it as it flew back. Panting, Yusaku rounded the corner that led back to the bright lights of Tropical Land…

Only to run straight into multiple armed police officers waiting for him. Far too late did he realize that he was completely surrounded. Heading the helm for the ambush was one familiar brown-coated inspector. "Yusaku-kun…" Megure muttered, fiddling with the brown hat on top of his head. "You're under arrest," he announced, heaving a sigh at the costumed man.

Yusaku spun back on his heel to see Shinichi with a sad, tired smile on his face. "Tou-san… you were expecting me to be alone when I confronted you at Tropical Land, weren't you? Perhaps the Shinichi of the past would have been arrogant, itching for an individual confrontation," he said self-deprecatingly, running his hand through his hair.

"But after the whole 'Conan' thing, I've learned otherwise. It's wise to have a backup plan and allies by your side." He kicked at the dirt by his feet. "I didn't tell the FBI so as to not draw your attention, but I did tell Megure-keibu over here," he gestured towards the inspector, who gave a nod of affirmation. "I had a feeling you would try to run eventually, so I had them stationed around the meeting point. It was a risky gambit, but judging from the look on your face, I'll say it worked out pretty well, wouldn't you agree, tou-san?"

Yusaku let out a laugh, looking down in defeat. "I see. I tried to lure you into a trap, but it looks like the one who was caught by their own trap in the end would be me," he snorted. "Good job, son. You've finally surpassed me."

Shinichi didn't react at the praise, simply signaling for Megure to handcuff him. As the cuffs went around Yusaku's wrists, he let out a wistful sigh. Ever since young, his father had always been one step ahead of him. He'd always wanted to prove himself to be better than his dad. But now that the tables were finally turned, he didn't feel any of the emotions that he always thought he'd feel after finally beating his father in a deductive battle. No elation, joy, or even a sense of victory.

He just felt empty.

As the boss of the Organization was led to a waiting patrol car, he held his hand to his chin, pondering Yusaku's last enigmatic words.

" _Do you remember how your namesake ended things? Yes, it appears that history is about to repeat itself tonight._ "

Shinichi jolted upright, eyes widening in realization. "It can't be!" When Yusaku had said "your namesake", he hadn't been talking about his namesake as Kudo Shinichi. His father was referring to his alter-ego, Edogawa _Conan's_ namesake. In other words, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

As for his question on how Doyle had ended things… he must have been talking about how the author had intended for 'The Final Problem' to be the final novel in the Sherlock Holmes series.

According to Yusaku, it was all over. Just like Reichenbach Falls.

The grand finale to an epic tale… until the whole thing eventually restarted again. That was what the "history is about to repeat itself" statement really meant.

Doyle had originally intended for Holmes to die at Reichenbach Falls, putting an end to his own fictional creation. To say that that decision didn't last was an understatement. Fan demand had basically forced him to reboot the series and continue writing about the exploits of Sherlock Holmes. It wasn't long before Doyle penned down another novel featuring Holmes, 'The Hound of the Baskervilles', and all but reviving the famous detective in 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes'.

That meant that…

He jerked his head towards the police officers, locking eyes with his father one last time. The twinkle in Yusaku's eyes before the patrol car sped away revealed that his deduction was correct.

The boss was implying that although he and the Organization had been taken down, suffering the same fate as Moriarty and his gang at the end of 'The Final Problem', it was not over. In fact, if he was right, the Organization would soon be revived, exactly like Sherlock Holmes after Reichenbach Falls.

Shinichi eventually released a breath he didn't even know he was holding. _Not this time, tou-san_ , he decided while admiring the view of the jet coaster that had started it all. Turning the frown on his face upside down, he swore that he would wait for the remains of the Organization to resurface. When that time came, he would proceed to clip the wings of the revived crow before it could even screech.

Just like a silver bullet waiting to claim its prey.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

This will be a series of oneshots dedicated to the weird Anokata theories that have floated around the internet for quite some time. Man, I'll really miss reading those.

We're starting with the standard Anokata guesses (the ones that Gosho always insisted would not be the boss) first. Not to worry, it'll devolve into stupidity, plot holes, and flame threats later when I write about people who really should _not_ have any business being in charge of a criminal organization. :P


	2. Okino Yoko

A/N: Contains spoilers for the Black Impact case (chapters 499-504/episode 425).

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Okino Yoko**

"Yehehhehehehe!"

Mouri Kogoro chuckled to himself in glee as he walked along the pavement. He was physically incapable of keeping the wide grin he that he was currently wearing off his face. Not when Yoko-chan had offered him a spot on her usual slot at Morning Live 7! Just thinking about it made him laugh merrily, earning him quite a few quizzical stares from nearby bystanders.

"Otou-san…"

Bah, he couldn't care less about what others thought. So what if they laughed at an old man like him? They just wouldn't understand. They would never get how important it was that his beloved Yoko-chan had agreed to offer him another one-on-one cooking spot on her morning program.

"Otou-san…"

Now an opportunity like _that_ was certainly worth giving up a Mahjong session with his buds. Surely Megure and the others would understand his plight!

"Otou-san!"

He jumped at the sudden shout that was right next to his ear. When he landed on his feet, he turned around only to see an irritated Ran.

Oh, right. Kogoro shook his head with a frustrated sigh. One of those 'nearby bystanders' happened to be his daughter.

"Ah come on now, Ran!" he quipped at his well-meaning daughter. "It's just a friendly visit to the TV studio for a guest appearance on a show with my beloved Yoko-chan!" His eyes lit up as he practically hopped along the sidewalk. "It's a beautiful day today, a beautiful, beautiful day~" he sang.

The blue-suited elementary school boy walking next to Ran laughed sarcastically when Kogoro broke into song, which prompted the man to hit him in the head. "What do you even know about Okino Yoko-chan, brat!" he shouted at Conan, "Don't look down at her! She's the shining star in a galaxy of imitation duds!"

Conan rubbed his head, before looking up at Kogoro still completely unconvinced. Despite his obvious skepticism, he chose to keep quiet as the trio walked into the TV studio building.

* * *

"That's it for Okino Yoko's four minute cooking program!" Yoko looked at the camera, extending a hand towards the seated detective. "And don't forget to wish a warm welcome to today's special guest, Detective Mouri Kogoro-san! See you all next week!"

"Cut!" The director gave a thumbs up to the duo seated by the table in front of the green screen. "Excellent work!" he praised.

"You did a great job, Mouri-san," Yoko commented. She looked like she was genuinely impressed with Kogoro's performance. Ran waved as well from the audience area of the studio set. "I concur, otou-san!" Only Conan was unamused. He simply yawned in response, not even giving the slightest attempt at trying to feign interest.

"Alas! Unlike my daughter, I must personally disagree with your statement, Yoko-san," Kogoro replied, his eyes shut tight in contemplation. Conan gave a small chuckle, imperceptibly shaking his head as he roughly made a guess as to what was about to happen.

"The noodles I made might be fantastic from your point of view, but in my opinion their taste cannot compare to _your_ noodles, turned hot by your exquisite beauty. Yahahah!"

"Oh?" Yoko gave a soft chuckle as Ran and Conan both rolled their eyes, pretending not to know Kogoro.

"But we got lucky, Conan-kun," Ran smiled warmly, "that the recording for 'Morning Live 7' just happened to fall on the same day as the national holiday. Isn't it exciting that we got to watch it live from backstage!"

"Um, yeah!" Conan agreed.

Just then, Conan's stomach rumbled. "Oh yes, we haven't had our breakfast yet," Ran remarked while looking down at a rather embarrassed Conan.

"If you're OK with it, why don't we eat together at the TV station's restaurant?" Yoko asked, giving the trio a thumbs up.

"That's a great idea!" Kogoro barged in before either Conan or Ran could decline her offer, much to the irritation of one small boy.

"Thank you for your time!" Yoko reached into her back pocket and took out a pink cellphone. "If it's not too much trouble for you, there's a friend I would like you to meet. But I'll have to call her, so please go on ahead and wait for me," she explained, dialing a number into the keypad.

Kogoro held up a hand to signal Conan and Ran to wait for him. "Give me a moment, Ran." Still seated, he dialed a number into his own mobile phone.

" _The number you have dialed is not responding. Please leave a message after the beep_."

"Damn! Megure isn't picking up," he commented, absentmindedly placing the phone back on the stageset dining table. "He must be on a case or something. How am I supposed to tell him that our Mahjong session would be delayed?" he moaned.

Ran's eyebrow twitched as her sensitive ears caught the mention of the word 'gambling'. She strode over to Kogoro with a furious face. Without warning, she grabbed him by the ear and literally dragged him away.

"Yowowowow! Have mercy, Ran!"

She glared at her father with a look that made him wince. "Not until you accompany us to lunch! Did you even listen to Conan-kun? The poor boy's being starved while you were droning on about your gambling session! Let's move! Now!" she demanded in a tone that meant that she was taking no objections.

"O-Okay," Kogoro admitted defeat, letting himself get hoisted away from the area.

* * *

Kogoro carefully gazed at the new person by the front of the table. "Hm… aren't you that newscaster on Sundays?" he finally asked.

"You're right." Yoko gestured to the woman, who had a rather unusual hairstyle. There were four distinct curly strands of hair hanging across the front of her head. "This is Mizunashi Rena-san, currently an announcer for 'Sunday Evening News'."

Rena nodded her head, bowing slightly. "It's nice to meet you."

"I'm the famous detective, Mouri Kogoro!"

"I'm his daughter, Ran," she smiled. "And this is Conan-kun."

"Hello!" Conan chirped.

"Nice to meet you as well, boy." Rena gave an uneasy smile, slightly uncomfortable from all of the sudden introductions. "Pssst!" she hissed to Yoko. "Is it really okay to bother Mouri-san with something as trivial as this?"

"Don't be shy, Rena-san!" Yoko reassured. "I'm sure he'll be a big help!"

"But…"

Kogoro had his eyebrows raised as he overheard Yoko and Rena's conversation. He couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer. "Is there a problem?"

"Actually, if you don't mind," Rena started, hesitating for just a moment before she carried on, "There's a case that I would like you to take, Mouri-san. It's a case of a doorbell prankster."

"A doorbell prank case?" Kogoro repeated with a frown, "And you want me to catch the culprit?" He slouched downwards, placing his elbows on the dining table and using said arm to support his head. Conan and Ran both simultaneously glared at his rude behavior. Kogoro's body language, no, his entire body frame was openly displaying his skepticism and boredom for all to see.

"Yes." Rena confirmed. "That's right. It's been regularly occurring over the past few weeks on every Saturday morning. Today, I was determined to catch the prankster, so I waited by the door. But when the doorbell chimed, no one was outside! Since then, I've gotten scared of even opening the door…"

"If it's okay with Mouri-san, why don't you help to investigate Rena-san's case?" Kogoro flinched backwards as Yoko directed the whole table's attention to him. "Y-Yeah…" he stuttered. Put directly on the spot, he had no choice but to accept the proposal.

"Oh, thank you!" Rena bowed again. "I really appreciate your help, Mouri-san."

"Well then, Rena-san," Yoko grinned, standing up from the dining table. "I suppose my job here is done. I better be off now. Good luck with the case!"

"Bye!" Ran waved at the departing Yoko as Conan gave a polite nod.

"No! Yoko-san, don't goooooo!" Kogoro whined.

"Time to go, otou-san." Ran's tone was blunt, one which didn't even bother to beat around the bush. "Let's help out Rena-san."

"Alright…" Kogoro lamented, getting on his two feet. "Eh? Hold it a moment…" He felt as though something was missing from his person. Looking down, it suddenly registered to him that a significant budge was conspicuously missing from his pocket. After patting it down, he realized with a panic that his phone was missing.

Kogoro slapped his forehead. It'd only just hit him that he'd left his phone behind at the studio filming room when Ran had dragged him off. "Argh! My phone's missing!" he yelled, making a run for it. "You all go first! I'll catch up to you later!"

"Wait a moment! Otou-san!"

He ignored his daughter, running up the stairs. He can't lose his phone now! Not when he had a horse-betting app on there that gave the daily results! What if he missed it and he just happened to have won?

Rounding the corner, he saw the studio room in sight. He was just about to enter it when he heard Yoko's voice coming from the slightly ajar door.

"Gin."

"Gin?" Kogoro stopped in his tracks. "Isn't that the name of an alcohol?" he recalled. Something felt off about about Yoko-chan. She was speaking in a hushed, serious tone, very unlike her normal high-pitched voice she used on TV.

"Kir will be delayed," she continued, and it was then that Kogoro realized that she was speaking to someone on her phone. "I suspect that someone is watching her apartment, so I sent a detective to investigate. When she gives me the all-clear, proceed with the plan." He held his breath as she clucked her tongue with irritation. "This is a reminder that Domon-san's fate must not be derailed. If a man like him ends up in charge of Japan, it will be detrimental to the organization. Sure, there's always a chance that he might not get elected into power, but I don't like taking chances. Domon-san must not survive past Mizunashi Rena's interview."

There was a beep as Yoko hung up her call. Kogoro hid behind the corner when he saw her exit the studio room. The idol cautiously darted her eyes left and right before she walked out and strolled off in the opposite direction.

When she was finally gone, Kogoro entered the room. Walking across to the stage set, he found his phone face-down on the dining table. "Gah!" he shouted as he saw the display on the screen. "The line's still connected!"

The screen read:  
Inspector Megure  
Call in Progress — 00:30:16

He hurriedly ended the call, slipping the phone back into his pocket. "Pah! What a waste of money, all just to send an empty voicemail!" Thinking nothing of it, he rushed back out of the room to catch up with Ran and the others.

* * *

"This is my apartment." Rena fiddled with her keys as she unlocked the front door.

Kogoro observed the surroundings of the corridor. "The passageway around here is rather narrow," he noted. "There doesn't appear to be any place for someone to hide behind this door."

"Then why don't we press the doorbell and test that theory?" Conan piped up.

"Yeah! I was going to say that!" Kogoro hurriedly added. Conan beating him to the punch prompted him to give the guilty boy a disapproving look.

"Okay then." Rena went in and closed the front door. On cue, Kogoro pressed the chime right as the door slammed shut.

 _Ding-dong!_

Kogoro was rewarded for his enthusiasm quite richly. "Hey, hey, hey!" he flailed about, landing on the floor as he found himself trapped between the door and parapet wall.

"Otou-san!" Ran cried out, running over to her squished father.

Rena apologetically placed her hand to her mouth. "I'm so sorry!" she apologized, pulling the door back to free Kogoro and give the panting man some breathing space.

"I'm fine!" Kogoro reassured, although he was clutching his nose in a manner that suggested quite the opposite.

"But that confirms it, then." Conan placed his hand to his chin. "Since this is a corner apartment, there's no way for anyone to hide behind the door once it swings open."

"Why don't we have a detailed talk inside?" Rena offered.

As the Mouri family took a seat by the sofa, the announcer began to give more details. "The bell ringer prank started about two months ago. There's been a consistent pattern to it, however." Rena placed a finger on her temple to recall. "Always at 6:30 on Saturday mornings."

"That's unusual." Kogoro sipped a cup of coffee. "Did anything happen two months ago?"

"Well—" she started, only to be cut off by a familiar chime.

 _Ding-dong!_

"Eh?" she gasped. "The bell again? But it isn't even Saturday morning yet—" Before she could even finish her observation, both Conan and Kogoro scrambled to their feet and raced for the door.

"Got you now, you stupid prankster!" Kogoro yelled unceremoniously, giving Conan a triumphant grin as he beat him to the door. It wasn't that much of a surprise that he reached the door first, considering he could cover more distance in a single stride compared to Conan. Using the momentum from the sprint, he proceeded to slam open the front door. It swung outwards, pining the perpetrator to the parapet railing. "Hmph!" Kogoro grinned, reaching for the collar of the person squeezed between the parapet and the door. "It looks like we have our man!"

"Oi! Get this door off of me!" Kogoro stopped short when he realized that he recognized the voice of the person who rang the doorbell. Peering from the ajar door, Conan began to chortle.

"K-Keibu-dono!" Kogoro yelped, raising his hands up in surrender as the person in question, Inspector Megure, forced away the door that was squashing him. "Um… oops?" he trailed off embarrassedly.

"Mouri-kun." Megure pushed himself off the floor, proceeding to give Kogoro a very deadpan stare. The inspector appeared to be very unamused when he realized that Kogoro had been the one responsible for his predicament.

Kogoro flashed a nervous grin. "Ah, if this is about the Mahjong session we planned together, I have an explanation—"

"Not now, Mouri-kun." Megure interrupted, waving Kogoro away. "That can wait. I'm here on important police business." He walked into the apartment and headed straight to Rena. "Mizunashi Rena-san," he acknowledged the announcer, before holding up his police badge, practically shoving it in her face. "You're under arrest for conspiring in an assassination plan to murder Domon Yasuteru."

"What!?" Everyone in the living room yelled in shock.

"Wait a moment!" Rena protested in shock, her hands in the air. "There must be some mistake! I know nothing about this—"

"There's no use trying to resist, Rena-san." Megure looked straight into her eyes. "We have hard evidence of your involvement. We've even managed to arrest your boss. Turn yourself in quietly."

Rena's eyes widened for a moment. Surprisingly, her shocked frown was soon replaced by a triumphant smirk. "I see," she said with a vicious grin on her face.

Megure took out a pair of silver handcuffs and cuffed her hands behind her back. "I don't see what's so funny, Rena-san." He glanced towards the apartment door, signalling Takagi to take her away.

"Hey!" Conan tugged on Megure's jacket as he was preparing to leave with Takagi and Rena. "Megure-keibu, what's this about an assassination plot?"

"Expressing excitement over something like this? I think you've corrupted the impressionable boy, Mouri-kun," Megure grunted at Kogoro. Forcing a smile, he looked down at Conan. "I'm sorry Conan-kun, but it's top secret. A kid like you cannot know about this." He lightened up slightly as Conan began to pout. "But uh, if you really want to know, by evening the police would release an official statement, okay?" he said, patting the boy on the head. In response, Conan gave a suspicious glance over to Rena, but eventually relented and looked away with a huff.

"Also… Mouri-kun." Megure stepped forward. "Do you mind coming with me back to HQ? It's regarding your voicemail message to me."

"Voicemail message?"

Megure raised an eyebrow at Kogoro's cluelessness. "Yes, that thirty minute voicemail message. You were the one who sent that, right?"

"Um, yes?"

"I thought that you sending such a long voicemail to a police inspector was suspicious, so I listened to it all the way through." He patted Kogoro on the back. "Great catch! I'll need you to clarify some things on the tape. Let's go."

"Otou-san!" Ran held a grouchy Conan by the hand. "If you need to go, I'll bring Conan-kun back first!"

"Y-Yeah!" Conan forced a smile, although he couldn't hide the fact that he was upset about being robbed out of a chance to solve a mystery.

And what was this about an attempted assassination anyway?

* * *

"Conan-kun." Ran had her hands by her hips. "It's rude to be on the phone during meal times."

"I-I'm sorry!" he flinched, regretting not turning his phone to silent. "I'll make it quick!" He quickly walked to a corner and answered the call. "Hello there! Who's this speaking?"

"Oi, Kudo!"

"Hattor-I mean, Heiji-niichan!" Conan yelped in shock, darting his eyes over to Ran. He heaved a sigh of relief, thanking his lucky stars that she didn't hear his outburst. "How many times have I told you not to call me that!" he hissed at the mouthpiece.

"Never mind 'bout that, Kudo!" Conan tsked as Heiji continued to use his real name over the speaker without giving a single regard to his complaint. "I think ya better turn on de news. It's really important, 'cos ya won't believe what's live right now!"

Conan had his eyebrows raised. From his tone, he could tell that Hattori was definitely up to something. "What's on TV right now?"

He could hear Heiji give a sneaky chuckle. "I won't spoil de surprise! Ya'll just have ta' find out for yourself!"

"Oi, Hatto—geh!" Conan glowered at the phone as Heiji hung up on him, leaving him on the dial tone. "What's that guy planning?" he muttered, eyes narrowing in suspicion as he walked back to the dining table. While reaching for his soup with his right hand, he picked up the remote control with his left and switched on the TV. He began to drink the bowl of miso soup just as the television powered up.

"…and it appears that a police raid has managed to arrest more members of this secret criminal organization!" The reporter appeared to be in a frenzy, her voice shrill and excited. "We'll be cutting straight to the scene!"

Conan ungraciously spat out soup that he had been slurping as the news cut to a furious Gin being led to a police car, handcuffs slapped over his wrists. He choked and coughed repeatedly, not sure if it was a bigger shock to see the media crew and reporters somehow still alive, or the fact that the bastard was actually somehow in police custody.

"Conan-kun!" Ran admonished, reaching for a napkin to wipe the bits and pieces of food strewn about. "Pay attention to your dinner! You've gone and made a mess!" she gently reprimanded the hacking boy.

He ignored her, jumping off his chair by the dinner table and running over to the television. His eyes were as wide as saucers as the news report continued.

"The raid was a success! Although there were many casualties, most of them appeared to be part of the criminal group and not from the police. Many of the top brass however, were successfully arrested alive, including the leader, pop idol Okino Yoko-san!"

 _Pop idol Okino Yoko-san_ , Conan jolted. _No, it can't be…_

"Eh? What's otou-san doing there?" Conan glanced back from Ran's voice, before looking back at the TV. Sure enough, _Mouri Kogoro_ was there.

"A secret criminal organization has been brought down by your own hand, Mouri Kogoro-san," the reporter smiled. "How do you feel?"

"It's nothing, really!" Kogoro tried to deflect the praise in a rather weak fashion. It was bluntly obvious from his cocky face that the aging detective was being far from humble about this.

"I disagree, Mouri-san!" The reporter had a wide grin on her face. "You had the foresight to record a call proving that pop idol Okino Yoko and her group was planning to murder the politician, Domon Yasuteru. Now that certainly takes skill and guts!"

Kogoro ran his hand over his head, giving a laugh. "To be honest, it was just a gut instinct, really…"

Conan inched closer to the screen, his face clammy. He lightly slapped himself, unsure if this was a dream or not. A myriad of thoughts flashed through his mind at the rate and speed of a rushing river.

 _O-Occhan managed to bring down the Organization just like that? How? When? Why? Just… HOW! How did that work!?_

"Yahahahahahaeheh!" Kogoro's trademark goofy cackle jolted Conan out of his stupor, bringing the boy back to reality. "It is truly a shame that my lovely Yoko-chan turned out to be involved in this. But do know that all the evidence compiled against her and her group is all thanks to me, _Meitantei_ Mouri Kogoro! Ahahahahaha!"

Shaking his head in pure disbelief, Conan walked over to a nearby wall and began to lightly bash his head into it rhythmically. "This cannot be happening," he muttered, eyes deadpan as he continued to see a laughing Kogoro bragging about his victory on live television. "Yes, that's right. This is all just a bad dream… a nightmare," he tried to reassure himself with a shaky voice. "If I pinch myself right this moment, I'll find myself lying in my bed."

There was no way, right? That the men in black that he'd worked so hard to even lay a scratch on had all been taken down thanks to freaking Mouri Kogoro and his womanizing tendencies of all things.

Oh, screw this.

"I'm full, Ran-neechan! I can't eat another bite!" he announced. Before Ran could utter an objection, he raced up the stairs to his own room. Conan had enough of seeing Kogoro on TV. The sooner he got out of sight of the breaking news program, the better it would be for him.

After locking the door, Conan took off his slippers and jumped onto the bed. Following that, he grabbed his pillow and proceeded to childishly whine and pout.

This wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair, not in the slightest.

He wasn't sure how long he lay there on the bed like that. He didn't even care about his usual pride. It just felt so good to release all of that built up tension!

After an indeterminate amount of time had passed after he let his emotions run wild, Conan felt his mind was no longer clouded. Finally looking past the fact that Kogoro had somehow beaten him to it, he looked on the bright side — at least They were all in custody.

But with the return of common sense, a new scary thought hit Conan like a freight train. He couldn't help but let that single worry permeate his mind.

 _Dammit! Now how on earth am I going to turn back?_

He'd always envisioned that _he'd_ be the one to bring down the organization in a blaze of glory. That all those bastards in black would be arrested, he'd manage to acquire the APTX-4869 drug research files, Haibara would perfect the antidote, he'd transform back, return to Ran, and they'd all live happily ever after.

But since Kogoro had been the one to destroy them, the organization members were all in police custody _without_ his assistance. This meant that unless he was able to prove that he had some relation to the BO case, Megure and the police won't let him into the investigation.

He gritted his teeth, taking off his black-framed glasses and setting them down beside him. The only way to possibly get access to the case and the much-needed research files for the apotoxin drug… was for him to submit himself as a material witness to the police. In other words, he would have to admit to being poisoned by the organization and being a shrunken Kudo Shinichi.

Oh, how the tables had turned. He had desperately wanted the Conan incident to be a secret to everyone except for Ran after it was all over. It was already bad enough with Agasa, his parents, and Heiji in on it.

But now, basically everyone would know the truth.

He'd been around the Tokyo Metropolitan Police long enough to know the proper procedure when it came to recording testimony. To prove his involvement, he would have to give testimony via police interrogation. The moment he admitted knowledge to it, he'd be allowed into the investigation, but unfortunately the police will have leverage on him — his confession of being Conan.

With that confession in hand, every last police officer from Takagi to Shiratori would know his big secret. Heck, probably the FBI as well. And if the evidence went to court, which it most likely will, all of Japan would know. To make matters worse, Kogoro would also be informed of this little tidbit too, given that the detective was now the point-of-contact for the case since he had "uncovered" the organization. That occhan finding out that the child he'd been babysitting was really a shrunken Kudo all along? Yeah, that would _certainly_ end well. If ' _well_ ' meant that he would wind up being tied onto the nearest firework rocket by a very furious detective.

"If occhan doesn't kill me for Sleeping Kogoro, then Ran will finish the job for sure…" Conan laughed bitterly. Kogoro would surely tell Ran about Conan being Shinichi if he was forced to admit it to the police. He wouldn't even have the chance to explain the full situation to her before she pulled her karate onto him and he ended up lying in a hospital bed with a cast for a week.

How ironic it was that the person he looked down upon and darted to sleep for months ended up being the most important figure to gaining his identity back.

Well, Conan came to the conclusion that fate wasn't a friendly mistress. It probably hated him, as a matter of fact.

He gave a bitter chuckle, wringing his wrists nervously. No point putting it off now. He might as well get it over with. Haibara would certainly be pissed if she knew what he was about to do.

Putting the Voice-Changer Bowtie to his lip, he took out his Shinichi phone and called Megure's phone number. After five rings, the call connected. "K-Kudo-kun!" Megure greeted. He was obviously startled by the familiar Caller ID. "What a surprise!"

"It's been a while, Megure-keibu," Conan greeted using Shinichi's voice. "Hey, is Mouri-tantei with you?" he asked, fighting down the butterflies in his stomach. "I-I've got some information that I need to talk to him about." He bit his tongue, before finally deciding to open the Pandora's Box. "It's regarding the Organization case," he said slowly.

There was no going back now.

"T-The Black Org Case!?" Megure yelped. He had yelled so loudly that his voice from the speaker ended up reverberating around the walls in Conan's room. Conan, however, chose to remain silent. A confirmation wasn't necessary in this case. Sure enough, after a few seconds, Megure managed to calm down. Heaving a deep sigh, he continued speaking in a serious tone, "Well, I guess now that I think about it, it isn't really all that surprising that you're somehow involved in this, right?"

"Correct." _You have no idea, Megure-keibu_ , he added in his mind.

"Hold it a moment, Kudo-kun." There was shuffling on the other end, scurried shouts and muffled voices as Conan was put on hold. After many excruciating seconds, he finally heard a familiar voice put the receiver to his ear on the other end.

"This is Meitantei-no-Mouri Kogoro on the line!" Kogoro introduced himself in a somewhat polite fashion. Even Conan was momentarily shocked until Kogoro let the façade drop. "Finally come to admit that I'm the greater detective, Kudo Shinichi?" he raised his voice, letting a stern tone creep in. "You've got some nerve to be calling me now after all the times you let Ran down, you detective brat!"

Conan clucked his tongue. He should have expected a scolding, to be fair. He inhaled a deep breath, trying to maintain his composure. "I want to give information regarding the case."

"Oh?" He could hear Kogoro's disbelief in that single word. "And what can you possibly know about it?"

"You may have arrested them, but you don't have any proof of their misdeeds. I, on the other hand, have the information that the prosecutors care about."

"What!? Do you think I'm beneath you!?" Kogoro yelled. Conan mentally slapped himself. It was evident that mentioning prosecutors must have touched a nerve, considering his relation to Eri.

"No!" Conan hastily denied before Kogoro lost his patience. The last thing he needed was for him to end the call. "It's not that! It's just that you need decisive evidence before you can convict them. And—" he swallowed down a gulp, "—I have that evidence. It all lies in one person, one key witness to the case…"

He grimaced, helplessly closing his eyes before finishing, "…E-Edogawa Conan."

Kogoro's reaction was roughly as what Conan had expected from dropping his own name. "What!? That bratty freeloader! What on earth are you talking about?"

"It'll all be clear very soon. I'll pop by around police headquarters with Ran later. From there, you'll know everything, and have the proof needed to put the organization away for good."

"What! You… with Ran?" Kogoro spluttered. "Oi! Don't you dare make a move on my daughter! When on earth did you get back? Why are you with her? How do you even know about the Yoko-chan organization case when we just got wind of it a few hours ago? You better explain yourself, you punk! I swear, I'm going to—"

 _Beep!_

He let out a deep sigh, removing his finger off the _end call_ button. Pocketing the mobile phone with a sigh, he pulled out an identical looking one from his other pocket.

His Conan phone.

Grabbing it by the soccer ball keychain, he swung the red cellphone around like a pendulum on a ball-and-chain before flinging it against the far end of the bed. The voice changing bowtie followed suit, landing close to his glasses.

Glasses that no longer served their purpose.

Swinging open the door, he called out to Ran. "R-Ran-neechan? T-There's something I'd like to talk to you about…" Forcing aside his fear, he gazed upwards at the approaching Ran. Seeing her made him strengthen his resolve. If his disguise was going to be blown apart, he was at least going to admit the truth to Ran before anyone else… especially that occhan.

"Conan-kun? What's the matter?" She appeared shocked to see her little charge without his glasses and with such a serious expression.

"You were right all along, Ran."

She opened her mouth, most likely to make a comment about the missing '-neechan' honorific, but then thought better of it and kept silent.

Seeing her puzzled expression, Conan prompted her further. "You should know what I'm talking about. I'm so sorry for deceiving you." He looked up, locking his azure blue eyes with hers. "Don't you remember what you've always accused me of?" he prodded, heart clenching, "What you've suspected from the start…"

Ran tensed up from his words. Her eyes widened as recognition and realization slowly crept in.

"S-Shinichi!?"

He supposed it was only fitting. As a detective who always strived to let the truth be discovered, it was only natural for his own mistruths to be revealed. After all, there was only one truth, and it would always find a way to be made known.

The time for regrets and brooding was over. It was finally time for all the lies to be unraveled.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Here's a celebratory chapter release just in time for the recent glorious news about the manga. :D

Yoko being the boss has been theorized for so unbelievably long that I can't really comment on it. Since I can't do this theory justice, I made this chapter kind of comedic on Kogoro's end… even though the chances of something like this actually happening in canon is almost completely nil. It'll never happen… at least, I hope not.

I'll be going straight to the classic jossed BO boss theories now. Next up will probably be either Agasa or one of the Detective Boys, depending on my mood. :P


	3. Detective Boys Pt 1 - Mitsuhiko

A/N: Contains spoilers for Haibara's introduction case (chapters 176-181/episode 129) and the Mystery Train arc (chapters 818-824/episodes 701-704).

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Detective Boys Pt. 1 - Mitsuhiko**

" _Attention to all passengers aboard the Bell Tree Express! This is an emergency announcement!_ _A fire has been reported in Carriage 8! For your safety, passengers in Carriages 6 and 7 should immediately evacuate to the front carriages of the train!_ "

As the announcement blared over the train, the young boy fiddled with the Mystery Train Pass Ring on his finger, twirling and twisting it around and around.

It might not be a proven fact that humans as a whole were highly resistant and opposed to the very idea of change, but it was certainly a well-accepted notion. Given the option of a choice, people would always tend to prefer being in control of any given situation. Rather unfortunately, this only worked when an individual was prepared for sudden swerves and shortfalls. In an ever-changing world however, the only way to avoid being caught off guard by any unforeseen changes was to hope that Lady Luck was on your side. But since how someone's luck went was basically dependent on the luck of the draw, the much more reliable method to guarantee coming out on top every single time was to simply game the entire system. You couldn't complain about an unexpected situation when all the cards were in your hand, could you?

He was a prime example of the latter train of thought, to the point where he'd amassed a reputation of being careful to the literal extreme. But such cautiousness definitely had its advantages. In this case, unlike the other passengers who were surely fretting and screaming over the sudden announcement made over the PA system, he was already well aware ahead of time that there would be a fire alarm.

Of course, this was because the fire had been deliberately started by his own men. _Well, well,_ he chuckled. _It appears that they've already made their move_.

Noticing the others taking heed of the announcement as well, he subtly shook his head to quickly hide his pleasant mood. After all, given his supposed age, he was supposed to act like a panicked young boy. Hence, by the time the others glanced towards Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko, the freckled boy only had a fabricated look of panic on his face, just the way it should be. "Hey, this is Carriage 6, right?" he asked the other Detective Boys by his side, making sure to inject mild worry into his voice.

"Y-You're right!" Genta jolted forward in his seat from the realization. As panic began to ripple across the room passengers, his good friend Ayumi gazed worriedly towards the door. "Then we'd better escape!" she exclaimed in a worried, hasty voice. Sure enough, her advice was duly noted as the occupants in the room started to make preparations to evacuate the area.

Mitsuhiko made sure to follow closely behind as the other children and Professor Agasa began to run for their lives. Although he appeared to be in a rush as well, if one were to scrutinize and pay close attention to his movements, they might observe that unlike the others, he was walking briskly instead of outright running. He was taking shorter strides as compared to his friends, despite the fact that he was taller and should have easily outpaced them. This very slightly sluggish pace indirectly betrayed his lack of concern about the whole ordeal. After all, there wasn't a need to waste any energy on what he knew to be a false alarm. Unlike a good portion of the passengers, running around like a headless chicken was a useless endeavor for him, simply because he was already aware that he wasn't in any real danger at all.

"Everyone! Please calm down and proceed forward in an orderly manner. I repeat, please calm-yargh!"

Mitsuhiko snorted in amusement, stifling an amused laugh as he observed the conductor who had been trying to calm the other passengers down ended up panicking at the seeping smoke and made a run for it himself. What irony.

He placed his hands in his trouser pockets as he witnessed the sheer chaos around him, amplified even further thanks to the handiwork of the pyrophobic passengers from Carriage 8 utterly panicking and trying to make a break for it. He eventually made his way to the front carriage, joining up with the group who'd reached there ahead of him. As the crowd slowly began to pile up like lost sheep flocking to a shepherd, Mitsuhiko began to feel mildly uncomfortable. His small body was already beginning to get knocked about by quite a few grownups trying to find standing space in the packed corridor. Sure, the train corridor might be relatively wide, but it wasn't meant to accommodate the entire passenger load gathering at one area.

Then again, the Bell Tree Express probably wasn't equipped to deal with a murder _or_ a carriage fire either, so that point was moot. Really though, what was Suzuki expecting when he modeled his train after the Orient Express? He was all but asking for eventual trouble.

 _Agatha Christie's famous mystery novel, Murder on the Orient Express, had a snowdrift stop the titular train_ , Mitsuhiko chuckled inwardly. _But it looks like this express train would be halted by the heat rather than the cold…_

"Otou-san!" A worried Ran tapped her father on the shoulder. "Have you seen Conan-kun or Sera-san anywhere?" she asked as she tried to scan her eyes around the massive crowd gathered around to see if she could locate either of them.

Mitsuhiko spun about on his heel to see the outcome of Ran's query. Which rather predictably, was a spluttering Mouri Kogoro. The detective gave an irritated _how-should-I-know_ look to his daughter as he retorted back, "Eh? Isn't that four-eyed brat with you? He was with me until a moment ago…"

"Hey! Ai-chan's missing too!" Mitsuhiko gave a passing glance over to Ayumi upon hearing the girl's worried remark. To be fair, it was about time that the others noticed Haibara Ai's disappearance. If they had been just a tad more attentive, they might have actually observed that she had vanished for quite some time already.

"Isn't she with Conan-kun?" Mitsuhiko feigned ignorance as he asked the thought-provoking question to the adults in what appeared to be (and was) an accusatory tone. It was amazing just how effective a child could be when they called an adult out for being irresponsible of their well-being. It probably came with the innocent look that young children tended to unknowingly use on the grownups.

"Really? I doubt that." Unlike most people, Mouri Kogoro didn't beat around the bush, preferring to bluntly state his opinions on the matter. "Wasn't she with the rest of you children?"

"Haibara-san went to the toilet, but she never came back!" Mitsuhiko replied. That much was definitely true. From Haibara's terrified expression right before she had left their train room, he could deduce that the escaped scientist was most likely piecing together the not-so-subtle hints that the Organization was on her back. The fact that she looked like she was close to tears while she had stared at her phone at what was likely a warning message only solidified that theory.

"Hmph! Then I have no idea where she is whatsoever-guk!" Kogoro choked on his saliva, shrinking back when Ran gave him a fearsome glare as a warning to tone down his indifference. "Well, uh… she's definitely somewhere on this train!" he hastily added.

Ran narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Otou-san! _Where_ exactly is Ai-chan?" She worriedly gazed towards the back, her concern for the small brown-haired girl obvious from the look in her eyes. "And it's not just her… Conan-kun's missing as well…"

Mitsuhiko let loose a snort. _Of course_ Edogawa Conan was conveniently out of sight as well. That disappearance was most definitely not a well-timed coincidence in the slightest. _Definitely not a coincidence_ , he thought sarcastically. "I think we should go and look for them!" he proceeded to suggest, his face the splitting image of a concerned friend. But before Ayumi or Genta could agree with him, Ran leaned downwards, shaking her head at the overly reckless trio. "I don't think so, Mitsuhiko-kun." She had a reprimanding tone in her voice, "I know that you're concerned for your friends, but a fire is very dangerous!"

"But we can't just leave them there! What if they're trapped somewhere?" Mitsuhiko flailed his arms exactly the way a panicked kid would. Seeing only a stunned silence from the group around him, he then vehemently shook his head and broke into a run, ignoring the protests of the others.

"Wait, Mitsuhiko!" Genta bellowed at the boy. "Where do you think you're going!?"

Mitsuhiko pointed towards the back of the train as he continued to run. "To find Haibara-san, of course!" he replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Haven't you realized that she's still missing! I bet she's trapped somewhere behind!"

"Don't be so reckless, Mitsuhiko-kun! There's a fire back there!" Ayumi cried out, managing to clutch his hand as she caught up with him. "Ai-chan will be fine, I believe in her! So please don't go, Mitsuhiko-kun! I don't want you to get hurt as well!"

"Let go of me, Ayyyyumi-chan!" he protested with an elongated whine, trying to tug his jacket free. "Please! I promise you, I'll be completely fine-wah!"

Without any prior warning, there was a loud bang that caused the entire train to creak and rattle along the tracks. The sudden motion caused Ayumi to let go of her grip on Mitsuhiko, and that sudden release meant that inertia took its course, resulting in Mitsuhiko falling forward with a yelp, landing ungracefully on the carpeted floor.

"Eh!" Ayumi ran up to him with an apologetic expression. "Mitsuhiko-kun, are you okay?" she asked.

He sheepishly rubbed his knee, thankful that his trousers had absorbed most of the blow. "Don't worry! I'm fine!" he reassured just before an even louden bang, one that sounded almost like an explosion, suddenly rang out.

"What the heck is going on here!?" Kogoro jerked his head towards the back as the entire train carriage vibrated. He rubbed his temples, exhausted. "Can't I have just one holiday where I can relax without trouble following me around like a hawk?" he complained, a disgruntled expression on his person. Kogoro's complaint would have been humorous if it hadn't been completely true.

Mitsuhiko pursed his lips. Just _what_ was going on, anyway? The plan was for Bourbon to trap her until the backup group could capture her at Nagoya Station…

" _Attention to all passengers aboard the Bell Tree Express!_ " the intercom blared once more, which led to many of the passengers looking at the direction of the speakers. The voice proceeded on, " _Due to an emergency situation, the train would be stopping at a nearby station. We apologize for any inconvenience caused._ "

 _What the…? Emergency situation?_ Mitsuhiko thought in a daze as he shook his anyone could stop him, he got to his feet and broke into another run.

"Mitsuhiko-kun!"

Using his small figure to his advantage, he squeezed between the legs of other standing adults, gaining some time on the others. Once he was certain that they had lost sight of him in the crowd, he ducked into the next carriage, running all the way down to the far end before he whirled around the corner and hid himself inside an empty room. Poking his head out into the smoke-filled corridor, he caught sight of two conductors talking to one another. "Did the storage hold really blow up?" One of the pale conductors asked his equally-stunned colleague.

"Yes, sir." He confirmed as he nervously peered towards the back. "When I heard the bang, I looked out of the window and saw a lot of billowing black smoke."

"Ahhhh! You're kidding me!" The first conductor yelled, slapping his forehead with a sigh. "The entire carriage really is gone? How the hell could something like this just happen? Oh man, the investigation is going to be a piece of work! If the audit finds anything we're toast!" He moaned in fear, "I could get sacked for this if the damages to Suzuki-sama becomes ludicrous and he lays me off!"

"Relax!" The second conductor gave a pat to the shoulder of his panicking partner. "Suzuki-sama won't be that harsh!"

"Not unless I can answer to him about how something like this happened!" He massaged the scalp of his hair, before tugging on it, "I can't even blame it on Kaitou Kid since that thief hasn't been seen even once throughout the entire train ride!"

Mitsuhiko was about to leave it at that until he noticed that he wasn't the only one eavesdropping on their conversation. He nodded in approval as he noted that poking his head out from two rooms away was his prime information specialist agent. It appeared that great minds thought alike.

As the conductors choked their way away, they didn't notice a man with blond hair walk out of a room and follow them back towards safety down the corridor. The man, Bourbon, had a contemplative expression on his countenance, barely showing the smallest flicker of annoyance in a slight frown. The man looked as though he had aged a good five years since he had first boarded the train.

It was then that Mitsuhiko got the feeling that something had gone very wrong. He had his confirmation barely a few seconds after, when Conan came hurtling down the corridor. Mitsuhiko ducked his head back in, only managing to catch a quick glimpse of the bespectacled boy hurriedly speaking on the phone as he dashed past the room Mitsuhiko was hiding in.

"Yes… took the bait… now safe… Agasa-hakase, you take it from here… need to settle loose ends." Those were the scattered pieces of words that Mitsuhiko was able to make out. Once Conan ran forward to the next carriage, evidently to rejoin Agasa and the others, Mitsuhiko found himself slumping to the carpeted floor. He shook his head with a swirl of emotions, angrily slamming his fist against the wooden door.

Damn it! Damn it all…

Mitsuhiko wasn't a dumb person. He didn't survive this long as the boss of a group of ruthless criminal mercenaries without being more cunning than all his subordinates combined. Just from a single glance, he had been able to tell that his good friend Conan-kun must have had some hand in botching up his subordinate's plans… once again. He received confirmation of that hypothesis less than a minute later, when his phone vibrated to notify him of a new incoming text message. Unlocking it, he glowered when he read the message from Ayumi asking him to return to the front carriage.

" _Agasa-hakase said that Conan-kun has managed to find Ai-chan! Please come back, Mitsuhiko-kun. :)_ "

Oh, if only Ayumi knew the truth. Those words in the text message seemed so innocuous, too. He slipped the mobile phone back into his pocket. Conan-kun, Conan-kun, Conan-kun… whatever should he do with Conan?

Despite everything his rational mind was telling him, Mitsuhiko found himself willing to close one eye to the whole ordeal yet again and pretend that he knew nothing. He found that he'd come to bond with the boy as a friend even _after_ he had realized just how similar their predicaments were. Despite how much that woman wanted to keep Conan's involvement with the organization a secret from him, nothing ever escaped his eyes. As a matter of fact, he'd known the truth ever since he felt that something was amiss during the Halloween Party, and did a little snooping around on his own to locate the source of the problem.

It was probably a good thing he didn't send reconnaissance agents to do that job. No one outside of his innermost circle needed to know that shrinking to a child was possible. Once was a miracle. Twice was a coincidence. Three times was just the universe taunting him.

At least Conan wasn't as big of a troublemaker as Akai Shuichi had been before Mitsuhiko'd unceremoniously had his men get rid of him. And if he had his way, Edogawa Conan would never be more than a mild nuisance, just so long as his men continued to play their parts — distracting him from the true prize.

In spite of all his respect he held for Conan, the boy was still enough of a troublemaker to annoy him. Mitsuhiko pouted as he strolled down the corridor to make his way back to the front, but not before he took out a separate phone and prepared to type one disgruntled text message to his most trusted subordinate.

"What the heck is going on?" he mouthed as he typed those same words into the phone, hitting the Send button before placing the phone back into his jacket.

* * *

Fresh air.

Mitsuhiko took in a deep breath of it, enjoying the cold refreshing breeze that lingered on his face as he walked out of the Bell Tree Express. He relished it after breathing in the sooty air caused by the storage hold being blown to smithereens. How ironic it had all turned out… the fake tear gas that posed as an excuse for a fire ended up turning into an actual fire when the storage hold mysteriously blew to pieces.

Aside from Agasa-hakase and the other Detective Boys, also by Mitsuhiko's sides were countless other stunned passengers who'd stumbled out onto the train platform with dazed and confused expressions on their faces. He supposed that he couldn't fault them for their sour mood. They had bought tickets to the Mystery Train in anticipation of a relaxing journey, only to end up directly in the line of legitimate danger. He would bet that some of them weren't able to distinguish reality from fiction, their discombobulated eyes still darting all around as if expecting cameras to pop up at any time, revealing that this was all an elaborate hoax by the Mystery Train team at their expense.

Too bad that wasn't going to be the case though. Mitsuhiko almost chortled at the idea of the whole thing being an act. A mere train crew most certainly didn't have the budget or the methods required to gain the amount of highly explosive C4 required to blow up a whole train carriage. It didn't help for the Suzuki Corporation that setting off such magnificent fireworks would be highly illegal as well and if they actually pulled a stunt like this, it would be the ultimate scandal for a company like theirs.

"It's just a shame that I couldn't meet you in Nagoya, especially since you've been waiting so patiently…"

Mitsuhiko narrowed his eyes as his ears caught wind of a conversation that probably shouldn't have been made so carefreely in public. Making sure not to look too conspicuous, he strained his head to focus on where the voice was coming from.

"Aren't you satisfied with Sherry being reduced to dust?"

Bingo. The woman mentioning the word 'Sherry' was all the confirmation Mitsuhiko needed. He'd tensed up when he heard the codename so recklessly mentioned, but relaxed when he realized that no one knew that it was referring to a codename and would rather conjure up the image of the alcoholic drink instead. Regardless, that was all he needed to confirm that the one talking out loud was his subordinate in this disguise.

Mitsuhiko snorted as he followed her voice to lock down her location, since her appearance differed but her voice—by some luck—was still her usual one this time, a playful vocal tone that he recognized. He gave an approving grin, nodding his head imperceptibly. As always, she had an impeccable disguise on hand — plain thick-rimmed glasses along with a white beach hat. Her getup was actually very outstanding in the crowd, but that was the point. The more obvious you made yourself stand out, the less that people around you would suspect anything amiss.

Once Mitsuhiko located her, he very subtly veered to the right from the group to head in the direction she was at. As he was the frontmost person of his group, his very slight change in the direction had the subconscious effect of the rest of the group unconsciously following his lead by also going very slightly off from their original course and straight into his subordinate's line-of-sight.

He slowed his pace to a stroll as he walked across the platform, buying himself as much time as possible to remain inconspicuous since he was waiting to remain hidden until she dropped her call. It finally happened when he and the others were barely five meters behind her. When she held her phone away from her ear to end the call, that was when an amused Mitsuhiko made his move. "But I was so surprised!" he exclaimed with unbridled glee, making sure to raise his voice so that he would be able to catch her attention. He was duly rewarded when he saw her slowly turn her head back, at which point he brazenly finished his statement, "I had no clue that Haibara-san was safe and sound all along, in Room B of Carriage 7!"

He had to physically control himself from showing any visible reaction via his body language upon seeing the shock on her face as she processed this new information. The temptation to put a teasing smirk on display was so tempting. Resisting his natural instinct to gloat or laugh at her, he instead chose to innocently break eye contact as he walked by with the rest of the children. Even so, Mitsuhiko had to admit that such teasing was quite unlike his usual personality. Maybe he had truly become a kid at heart after pretending to be one for so long.

"Ah, but don't you see, Mitsuhiko? The reason the room was freed up and vacant because it was the dead victim's room," Genta pointed out as he tilted his head towards Mitsuhiko, readily giving his own input. At this, Mitsuhiko could only cluck his tongue in response. That chubby boy had a tiny bit of an ego problem, always striving to come out on top in a conversation. It wasn't much of a problem for the moment, but it would certainly be an issue in the future if it wasn't quashed when he was still young.

Ayumi gave a soft gaze at the exhausted Haibara clinging onto Agasa's back. "Yeah! She probably took a rest there because her cold made unwell. Poor Ai-chan…"

"Shush!" Agasa put his finger to his lip, hushing the enthusiastic children. "Ai-kun's feeling worn out, so she's getting some well-deserved sleep. Let's not wake her up, okay?"

"Alright!" All three of them agreed. At least they all held a consensus there. It certainly was a tiring ride, regardless of whether a person was involved in the deception or not. Even _he_ was certainly going to take a long rest when he got home.

* * *

And it looked like home was going to await him really soon. After all of them universally agreed that taking a train back to Beika was out of the question, they began to debate on what the best mode of transportation back would be. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—for Mitsuhiko, that was when a new voice cheerfully called him out.

"Mit-chan!"

His eyebrow twitched. There was only one individual on the planet which called him using that honorific. Hiding a scowl, he whirled around at the source of the voice. "Onee-chan!" he beamed, no traces of irritation in his expression or voice.

"Mit-chan!" Tsuburaya Asami ran up to Mitsuhiko, kneeling down to cradle his face, "What brings you here?"

"Unintentional train stop, onee-chan," he replied while looking away embarrassed. The vague response on his end was intentional.

"Eh! Aren't you Mitsuhiko-kun's onee-chan?" Ayumi exclaimed. "What are you doing over here?"

"Well, my little Mit-chan sent me a message to tell me that his train got into an accident. But since I happened to be in the area, I offered to pick him up." She leaned down and shot her younger brother a pearly smile. "Isn't that right, Mit-chan?"

Mitsuhiko barely grimaced, before shaking off his shock and nodding his head to show the others his affirmation. "That's correct, onee-chan!" he chirped.

Genta shot a disappointed frown. "You're leaving us, Mitsuhiko?" He could even guess why Genta was being so snobby about it — the Detective Boys were usually almost always together, so by going home alone, they probably felt a little "betrayed". But at least Genta accepted that he wasn't going to win a word of words with his elders and hence, the unofficial Detective Boys leader conceded. "Well fine, just go then."

Mitsuhiko couldn't help but to give a smile back. "Bye guys!" he waved with his free hand as he walked away from the others. "I enjoyed the trip! It was super eventful!" he added while performing exaggerated hand gestures to emphasize his point. It was definitely the truth. After all, the train ride was certainly an eventful trip for him, in more ways than one.

"Bye, Mitsuhiko!" Genta yelled back. Ayumi gave the boy a hearty wave as well, "See you back in school, Mitsuhiko-kun!" she shouted.

Ending his phone call, Conan slipped his phone into his pants pocket, giving Mitsuhiko a subtle nod of his head. "Yeah, see you later." Honestly, that was probably the most enthusiastic response that he'd be able to get out of Conan.

"Yep, yep!" Mitsuhiko chirped in response.

"Oi, Mitsuhiko." Conan frowned slightly. "You sure you'll be okay?" he called out just before he and his elder sister were about to round the corner of the station and head out of Conan's sight.

"Don't worry, Conan-kun!" he reassured the paranoid boy with a feisty grin. "I'll see you after the weekend!"

"Okay then…" Conan returned, "Then I'll see you at school next week as well, Mitsuhiko-kun."

"Sure thing, Conan-kun! Bye bye everyone!" Mitsuhiko had a cheery smile on his face as he walked off in tow with Asami. As he rounded the corner, he observed that Conan appeared to be slightly grouchy. It appeared that the boy had been looking forward to having Mitsuhiko around on the return trip. He continued to walk along silently, leaving the station platform and walking along a footpath.

He kept the act up until he was certain that the others were gone. When they were a sufficient distance away from the others, Mitsuhiko snapped his head around at Asami. "Stop calling me 'Mit-chan'," he glowered at her. "You know that I absolutely despise it when you call me by that nickname."

"Mit-chan!" Asami gasped, wagging her finger disapprovingly at him. "That's very impolite! Otou-sama and okaa-sama raised you better than that!"

"But Asami-neechan, I'm having a bad day! Can't I at least rant about it?" he playfully bantered, although the sneer on his face didn't make it seem like so much of a joke.

"I'm telling otou-sama, Mit-chan! Now you're definitely going to get a good punishment when we get home, you little naughty boy!"

Mitsuhiko ignored her, narrowing his eyes slightly as he strolled on. "Alright, that's enough. You can drop the act now," he muttered in a serious tone, putting his hands by his hips. "Especially considering that your default disguise is that of a sister who is non-existent unless you decide to make fun of me. Isn't that right, Asami-neechan?"

'Asami' let her ditzy expression fade away, revealing a sharp, wicked grin that didn't fit right on her face. Mitsuhiko folded his arms while giving her the evil eye in response. "Don't you have anything better to do?" he hissed, "Weren't you disguised as Akai Shuichi to confirm that he's dead? When did you get the time to rip that disguise apart, walk off the train in another disguise, and then immediately disguise yourself as Tsuburaya Asami yet again?"

"There was a public washroom at the station. I simply ditched Bourbon back there and put on this spare disguise in my purse before catching up to you."

"Heh!" he snorted. "Any reason as to why you're so hasty today?"

"Well, I happened to see your text message and decided after I read through your angry little message—", she said those four words in a singsong-like manner that made Mitsuhiko almost want to jump up and strangle her neck, "—I simply felt that I had to personally explain matters to you face-to-face." As she finished, she reached a finger up to her eyes to remove two contact lenses, turning her ditzy eyes into sinister, cunning blue ones. "But can I at least keep the disguise on?" she asked as she flipped her hair. "Not only are we in public, but I also spent quite a bit of time preparing this emergency mask and really, I'll prefer if it wasn't a waste. I'd hate to rip it out in just five minutes after applying the foundation up."

Mitsuhiko stopped walking, turning his head slightly in her direction with a stern expression that made it seemed like he was about to decline. She simply stared back with defiant eyes, her smile slowly growing wider. After an unbearable silence, Mitsuhiko turned away, giving her a barely noticeable nod in acknowledgement.

He supposed it couldn't be helped. Vermouth usually managed to get her way, courtesy of her perks of being his favorite member. His amused and jovial face turned solemn after Vermouth dropped the 'elder sister' façade. "Why do you want her dead so badly anyway, Vermouth?" he questioned her, cutting straight to the chase.

"Come on now, boss," she smiled down at him while stroking his cheek. "Don't make me tell. After all, a secret makes a woman, woman."

"Remaining tight-lipped about the topic again, eh?" Mitsuhiko raised an amused eyebrow as he stepped aside to move her hand away from his cheeks. "Peh! In my personal opinion, you keep far too many secrets to yourself."

Vermouth stood back up, her eyes twinkling in a way that was very familiar to him. Having known her for a long time, Mitsuhiko knew exactly what she was going to say even before the words left her mouth. "Don't even think of keeping what happened on that train from me, Vermouth," he snapped, bringing the topic back on track before she could redirect the flow of the conversation. "What exactly were you and Bourbon doing?" he questioned her as he began to impatiently tap his foot, "Because whatever you two did back there, you caused the entire train to rattle around like dice rolling around in a casino."

"Oh, you mean that?" Vermouth jerked her head down, her hair flipping through the motion. "That rattling was courtesy of the explosives that I detonated after the storage car had been delinked from the Bell Tree Express," she explained, a teasing smile threatening to break loose.

His eyes narrowed to slits, "Explosives?" he repeated as she proceeded to smile even wider. Well, at least that explained all the booming noise he had heard aboard the train earlier.

"Yes?"

Mitsuhiko almost rolled his eyes at her innocuous reply. "So you were planning on blowing her to smithereens?" He shot the woman a deadpan look. "That's very weird, you know," he said with sarcasm laced in his words, "Because I certainly don't recall _that_ being in the original plan."

"Hahahaha!" Vermouth gave a hearty laugh at her boss' bluntness. "It's what I would call an improvisation!"

"Improvisation?" He clapped his hands in a cynical fashion. "I don't know what your definition of that word is, but I myself wouldn't call preparing enough explosives to blow a storage hold sky-high a last-minute 'improvisation'…"

"But it's true…" she playfully whined with a tone that made Mitsuhiko instantly know that she was messing with him. "Besides, I swiped those explosives from Gin. He was planning on using them to blow up Nagoya Station."

"Excuse me?" He raised a bored eyebrow. "Gin does know that I'm on the train headed to Nagoya, right?"

"Not exactly. There aren't many people know of your condition, sir." Mitsuhiko grunted at her words. They were serious, but the impertinent smile she had on her face made it seem more like a taunting jab at his expense.

"My condition…" Mitsuhiko put his hands to his face, before angrily shaking his fist at Vermouth. "Hey! Don't call it a 'condition' just because I'm stuck looking like this!" he shouted, stomping his foot on the ground as if to invite the woman to criticize his looks. "Besides, it won't be long until I look young forever. I am this close, _this close_ to completing my immortality!" He held his thumb and index finger close together just to emphasize how close he'd really been.

The drug was to be administered in multiple parts, but the final dose, the one which would have stabilized his immortal young self, had been incomplete when their head scientist flew the coop. "But isn't it ironic…" he said in a hauntingly low voice as he wrung his fingers in desperation. "The key to perfecting the drug to immortality lies in Haibara-san's hands. The very same Haibara-san who I see in class every single school day! Part of the Detective Boys, no less! I've been around her so much that I practically know her inside-out!" He gazed up at the sky, deep in thought, "This meant that her whole shrinking act and her alias had all been for naught from the very start… since I always knew where she was. If I order Gin to get to here from Nagoya right this moment and proceed to ambush her, she would be completely mine! Not even her precious Conan-kun can get her out of this!"

Mitsuhiko turned his head briefly to the Bell Tree Express train by the station, knowing full well that the person he was after would still be hovering around the area. "But even with all that knowledge in my hands, it's no use at all! I-I just can't sell her out! I can't betray Haibara-san!" he shouted, losing control of his usual calm composure for just a moment.

The lanky boy couldn't help but tune himself back to the day that he'd encountered the caramel-brown haired girl one more time.

* * *

 **Many months ago…**

" _What! Sherry has escaped!? Who the hell is responsible for this mess? No, be quiet, I don't really give a damn about the details. Just call the cavalry and get her back immediately, you imbecile! Tell the men that this is a direct order from me!_ "

Fighting back a growl, Mitsuhiko had given the permission for a manhunt, a scowl on his face. He seethed with anger at the news that had been dumped unceremoniously onto him a few hours prior. Incompetent morons! They were only supposed to hold her until she relented and continued her work. How could they possibly lose the head scientist for the APTX-4869 project? Heads were definitely going to roll for this… quite literally.

"Oi, Mitsuhiko!"

Not bothering to lift his head from the table, Mitsuhiko tilted it slightly towards his left so that he could see the speaker. "G-Genta-kun…" he mumbled in a daze, "What is it?"

"Pay attention to Ayumi when she's talking!"

He grunted and lifted his head up, letting his dark thoughts leave his mind as his eyes turned from narrowed silts to innocently wide eyes in the span of a second to complete the act that he pulled every day. Gone was the megalomaniacal chief mastermind planner, and in its place was a mere seven-year-old boy.

"Did you hear the news? A new student will be joining our class today!" Ayumi chirped.

"Really?" Genta mumbled.

"Yep, yep, yep! I heard Kobayashi-sensei mention it in the staff room!"

Even Mitsuhiko couldn't help but let his curiosity be piqued. "We haven't had a new transfer student since Conan-kun," he commented. While he was still stuck in the rigid and regimental life of a Japanese first-grader child, he supposed that a new student joining his class was the closest thing that he'd have to breaking the boring status quo of relearning multiplication tables and hiragana all over again.

As Ayumi and Genta began to hypothesis on what the new transfer student would be like, he sighed and went along with their conversation, feigning interest in making guesses of their name and appearances along with them. Really though, making predictions was futile. You couldn't predict what a person would be like even based on first impressions, let alone when you knew absolutely nothing about them. There was no point in making assumptions when you could simply know the answer by waiting for a few minutes.

And sure enough, after two more minutes, their new classmate arrived by the classroom door, much to the enthusiasm of the entire class. As Mitsuhiko laid his eyes on her, he'd almost flinched back in shock, the shrunken freckled boy only managing to stop himself from doing so at the last moment.

Even so, he couldn't help but blink his eyelids multiple times in sheer disbelief at the sight ahead of him. Mitsuhiko _recognized_ her. How could he not when he'd just literally ordered a manhunt to locate her.

 _It can't be… Sherry? She'd shrunken down as well!_ His mind went into overdrive as he realized what this new development meant. _Then that means… the completed apotoxin research is with her!_

"Alright, children!" Kobayashi-sensei announced, unaware of the thoughts that a certain not-child was thinking in his head. "Meet your new classmate, Haibara Ai-san!" she said to the eager students as she wrote Haibara's name down on the board. "She will be joining Class 1-B starting today. Do make sure to give her a warm welcome!"

Mitsuhiko had forced a friendly smile on his face to go along with the rest of the class as she walked down the desks to pick a seat, of which a mildly surprised Conan had the honor of being selected as her seat partner. For the remainder of Kobayashi-sensei's class, he remained spaced out by this revelation. The normally focused boy snuck glances at Haibara when she wasn't looking, only stopping when Kobayashi-sensei almost caught him out. Mercifully for Mitsuhiko, the bell rang soon after, signaling the end of the class.

As Haibara picked up her bag and took her leave, he deftly followed her. Fortunately for him, it turned out he wasn't the only one to do so. Ayumi and Genta had beat him to it. It turned out that they were also interested in Haibara, although for entirely different reasons from him. He decided to stay back, hanging alongside Conan to gauge her behavior.

"Hai-bara-san!" Ayumi greeted Ai as she caught up the aloof girl's back, "Let's go home together!" Much to Ayumi's disappointment, Ai merely paused before continuing her walk without even looking at her. Seizing the chance to make conversation now that he wasn't the first one to do so, Mitsuhiko quickened his pace to catch up to her side. "You'd just moved to this neighborhood, right?" he innocently asked. "Where do you live?"

He was actually legitimately surprised when she actually answered his question. "Beika City 2nd District, No. 22. That is where I currently reside," she replied plainly, an unfocused look on her face. Mitsuhiko noted that while he had been the one who asked the question, she had actually directed her answer at Conan, sending the boy a cryptic glance. He chose to ignore that minor detail though. It was insignificant when he now had much more important information at his fingertips. He had to control himself to resist from grinning maniacally by telling himself that as a rule, normal first-graders do not burst into crazed laughter.

But still, that was certainly careless of her to reveal her hiding spot like that. Heh! Now she was only one phone call away from her doom.

"By the way…" Ai started as the group approached their lockers. "I've heard quite a few rumors about the whole lot of you. Are you the so-called Detective Boys?"

He sighed as Ayumi and Genta's lips begin to rise to that of a smile. He supposed he'd have to keep up the nice polite boy act for a little longer. "You bet we are!" Genta bragged in a such a loud voice that almost every student currently in the locker room was able to hear him. Any traces of humbleness or subtlety were nowhere to be found from him.

Mitsuhiko let a boyish smile cross his face. Looks like he would have to stand corrected on his previous presumption — he was going to have to keep up the nice polite act for far longer than 'a little while'.

* * *

Stupid woman.

First off, the concept of henchman wearing black had been his idea. How dare some random unaffiliated criminal steal it from him! Although to be fair, he had watched a mafia-themed movie on the day he made that decision for his organization.

Secondly, they'd made the mistake of messing with Conan-kun. They were practically toast by that point. From what Mitsuhiko knew of fellow Detective Boys member Edogawa Conan, he was certain that they were doomed the moment Conan had set their eyes on them like a dog lapping up his meal. The boy was a walking spanner in the works whenever it came to crime.

But to top it all off, the whole case had been a cheap money laundering scheme that had _not_ been worth his time. His own people had amassed about a fifth of Japan's national GDP in terms of funding. In contrast, the amount of illegal money that those unprofessional amateurs got by kidnapping someone to forge banknotes for them was laughably measly compared to what his group dealt with on a daily basis. Mitsuhiko had to resist laughing at the audacity of the overconfident ringleader's scheme when he was being held at gunpoint along with Ayumi and Genta. It would be really out of character for a little boy to laugh when his life was being threatened.

He'd left the area with Ayumi and Genta in tow, giving the humble excuse that the time was running late for them, thus leaving Conan and 'Haibara' behind with the police to wrap up the case. The last thing that he wanted at this point was for the police to interrogate them for any details.

Mitsuhiko proceeded to heave a sigh in relief when it was all over. There were always cases that his carefree friends got into like this one, cases where he was tempted to ditch the façade of being a helpless kid because the Detective Boys would always wind up getting into a ridiculously absurd amount of trouble. Most of the time however, he chose to remain calm with nerves of steel. As long as Conan-kun was still kicking, he knew that he himself would not be in mortal danger, and hence had no reason to blow his cover. As a bonus, the competent bespectacled boy would draw all the unwanted attention away from him.

And speaking of Conan…

"Conan-kun was so cool when he confronted the lady in black like that! He saved me from that mean woman!" Ayumi whirled around towards the two boys, clearly eager for their opinions on the climactic showdown between Conan and Haibara against the woman in black. "What do you guys think? Conan-kun was great, wasn't he?"

"Hmph! I suppose so…" Genta turned his face away, grumbling under his breath. The jealousy that he held for the smaller boy whenever Conan bested him was clearly there on his face.

"Yeah…" Mitsuhiko mumbled. It was times like this that he was envious of the other actual children of the group. At least Genta or Ayumi didn't need to fake their enthusiasm. During his actual childhood once upon a time, he really had been such a polite, shy, and curious child. But as the years went by, his curiosity had slowly died down, as most children did as they grew into mature, more down-to-earth adults. Having to act carefree again was slightly jarring to him, especially with such adventurous friends.

That said, even though he was seven again, Mitsuhiko had actually carried quite a few personality traits over from his past life. His meticulousness and attention to detail, for instance, had carried him through both childhoods. It allowed him to notice minor details that most people would overlook. For example, when Haibara picked up the gun that the woman in black had dropped, he noticed her expression when she pulled the trigger. She looked cold and dead on the inside.

This was not good, he thought. He narrowed his eyes as Haibara's cold face flashed through his mind again. He'd rather not deal with having an irreplaceable asset being self-destructive.

After talking for a while more, he split up with Genta and Ayumi, claiming that he had a faster way back to his house. Bidding his goodbyes to the other two, he turned around a corner to walk along a dark alley. Ensuring that no one was in the vicinity, he pulled out a black cellphone separate from the normal phone that he used. Completely focused on the screen, Mitsuhiko then began to type in a text message that would seal her fate.

' _Found Sherry's whereabouts.  
Her location is No. 22 Beika Street, 2nd District.  
Take her back to me alive.  
\- Boss._'

It was only at the last moment that Mitsuhiko hesitated to give the order. He let out a tsk in annoyance as a new thought came to him, his finger dangerously hovering over the button to send the message. His face contorting in anger, he backed out of the message and slipped the mobile phone back into a hidden compartment in his pocket. The text message lay saved as an unsent draft on his phone, a smoking gun left unfired.

He'd almost sent the message to Gin before realizing that sending such a demand to the silver-haired assassin under his employ meant that she would most likely end up in a body bag. He couldn't have that now, could he? At least not when he needed her alive and in one piece to finish up the apotoxin. He knew Gin well enough to realize that entrusting this mission to him and Vodka would be an absolute travesty. Despite all the pros, it could only end in disaster thanks to the history between him and Sherry. It was far too risky to send him, and Mitsuhiko didn't trust any other lower-ranked members to pull off a successful kidnapping.

Worse still, she'd already been introduced to an entire class of first graders as Haibara Ai. If she disappeared immediately, it would certainly lead to several questions. The school would not simply let a suspected kidnapping of a child go unresolved without a massive investigation. A successful cover up would be extremely tricky to pull off, especially if the trail ended up leading back to him.

In the end, he had come to the conclusion that it was far too soon for him to come and retrieve Sherry. Being hasty and kidnapping her back right now would make it blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that a member of the Organization was watching Teitan Elementary, and he most certainly wasn't going to blow his cover in such an unprofessional manner. If she thought that she could hide, all the power to her, but two could certainly play at that game. Mitsuhiko chortled to himself as he strolled back to his house. He would let her think that she got away with hiding herself in Beika City, when in reality he'd keep his eye homed in on her, perpetually knowing her whereabouts.

And what better way to do that than to induct and recruit her as a member of the Detective Boys?

* * *

It had been months since he made the decision to remain close to her so as to keep a watch over the scientist. Since then, things had changed greatly between the two, to an extent that even a calculative mastermind like him was unable to predict or prepare for.

Mitsuhiko had never wanted things to turn out this way.

"How do you think Haibara-san would feel?" he asked in a quiet voice, his eyes instinctively hovering down to the ground. Months of lies and deceit had slowly taken its toll on him. "How would she react if she knew that the Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko that she'd known for months at Teitan Elementary had been the one who'd commissioned the Miyanos to make the apotoxin in the first place?"

He shook his head, a scowl on his face. The question that he'd asked was rhetorical and he knew it. "That's why she can never find out. She must never figure out who I really am… what my true identity is. Now you see it from my point of view, don't you? Why I can't just go after her personally, and as a result let only my subordinates locate her."

As she remained silent, his lips curved upwards to flash a teasing smile. "Oh, come on," he chided. "Don't you me you didn't realize the reason Bourbon managed to lock Sherry's location down to the Bell Tree Express in the first place?" Seeing that he now had Vermouth's full attention, he went on, "It would be too suspicious if the mysterious boss of our little organization randomly decided to give a deliberate order to hunt down a traitor like Sherry after ignoring her for so long, wouldn't you say? Therefore, I proceeded to pull a few strings to make sure that you'd find her of your own accord."

"You don't mean…?"

Mitsuhiko chortled, gazing confidently at Vermouth as she gasped. She certainly looked shaken up by his admission. "That's correct," he confirmed her suspicions, "I was the one responsible for the information leak in the first place."

He reached into the pocket of his trousers, deftly pulling out his smartphone. "I'd secretly filmed a video that featured Miyano Shiho along with her Mystery Train pass ring using my mobile phone a few days ago. Under the guise that me and my elementary school friends wanted to thank her, I immediately sent that incriminating file to the Mouri Detective Agency, knowing full well that Bourbon had already managed to get access to the computers there." He shrugged, a playful smile on his lips. "Of course, now that I admit that much, it must be obvious what the real reason I sent that video was, right? It was to ensure that I set you folks on her trail again by instigating the crisis."

"But why?" Vermouth pressed, "You already have her dancing in the palm of your hand. You can crush Sherry at any time!"

Mitsuhiko shrugged unenthusiastically. "Oh, come on. Even my eternal patience has its limits. Acting exactly like a genuine kid takes a lot out of me when I'm around others that are stuck in the same boat as me."

As Vermouth's expression subtly changed, Mitsuhiko realized that he might have said just a bit too much. He knew exactly why her reaction was so worried too — she suspected that her boss knew something about another shrunken boy. "But regardless of our current situation, Haibara-san and I are in it for the long haul until you lads buck up." He defused the situation by backtracking from the danger zone, making it appear that he was only aware that Haibara was the only shrunken one.

Certainly, Vermouth's expression returned back to normal after the added "clarification". What he didn't expect was for her expression to go from a leer to the complete opposite so quickly. "Aw… Mit-chan's got a cute little crush!" Vermouth teased, deliberately reverting back to her 'Asami' voice. Feeling the woman ruffling up his neat hair, Mitsuhiko angrily shoved her hand aside. "Hey, hands off the hair!" he yelped, before using his hands to comb down and attempt to salvage his now-unkempt hair.

"You know, boss, you could always gel your hair in order to make it neat again."

"Well, unlike you, I don't use hair gel!" Mitsuhiko snapped, giving up on trying to make his untidy hair neat. "I prefer my hair au naturel."

They then continued to walk in silence until Mitsuhiko eventually spoke up again, his voice much softer when he finally continued the conversation. "Well, regardless of everything, I suppose that I'm forced to admit that Haibara-san managed to get the upper hand over the Organization in the end. It looks like she got away rather unscathed from both you and Bourbon."

He shot Vermouth a glance as he said that. The unspoken assumption was that it was due to Conan that she managed to get away. He knew that and she knew that, but Vermouth was making the false assumption that her superior didn't know. "I guess that considers us even for the burning shack incident," Mitsuhiko mumbled, before cursing inwardly once he realized that he said that out loud.

It wasn't supposed to be like this at all! He wasn't supposed to wind up feeling indebted to her! Things were supposed to be perfect! An immortal life locked down in eternal childhood should have been one of no stress, worries, or consequences whatsoever — a chance to break free of society's norms without others judging him! Because, really, who'd expect a kid to conform to society's rules and regulations?

Only far too late did he realize that all along, he might have only been deluding himself. He could never lead a carefree life when he had to worry about whether his friends would discover his secret every single waking hour of the day. Ayumi-chan and Genta-kun were problematic enough, but Conan-kun and _especially_ Haibara-san would be pure disaster.

Mitsuhiko wasn't sure how long he could continue to keep up the masquerade, and the boy could imagine in very vivid detail just how well the confrontation would go if they ever found out the cold, hard truth. Haibara would tremble with terror-filled eyes as the criminal mastermind approached her, his cover blown sky-high. "Why!?" she would cry with a quiver in her voice, "Why did it have to be you, Tsuburaya-kun?" The girl would then most likely point an accusatory finger at him, "I trusted you!" she would yell, the betrayal in her voice almost beating out her fear.

"Heh. Now that was your own mistake, you know? Letting your guard down like that… how very careless for someone like you, Haibara-san. But truthfully, did you really think that you could hide from us forever? But still, I suppose this is the point where I admit that it was all lies and deceit. When it came down to it, I was only part of the Detective Boys because I wanted to keep an eye on you and see the APTX-4869 progress through to the very end!" That was what Mitsuhiko would brag, lying through his teeth to Sherry-no, Haibara. Perhaps that might have once been true at the beginning. But now in the present, Mitsuhiko wasn't so sure. He couldn't say that statement with one hundred percent certainty. After months of getting to know her, he couldn't say that he harbored any more ill intent towards Haibara. All he truly wanted from her now was her research. That was all he needed. He didn't require anything else from her.

And if Mitsuhiko really was forced into a final confrontation with Haibara as a last resort so that he could get the completed apotoxin, then it was almost a certainty that Conan-kun, with his myriad of gadgets, would take him down. It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of _when_. He'd seen Conan's 'soccer ball plus kick-enhancing shoe equals extreme pain' in action against other criminals before, and decided very early on that he would very much prefer not to be Conan's next target for soccer practice.

The boy was a very dangerous foe to have, especially now that the FBI pest Akai was finally dead. Therefore, all he could do at the moment was stay under the radar as an elementary school student, and maybe, just _maybe_ , they'll never find out. Perhaps if he was patient enough, there was a chance that one of his useless subordinates would actually manage to succeed in acquiring Sherry's new research, leading to what Mitsuhiko felt was the best-case scenario: he would be able to complete the drug without any of his elementary school friends discovering the truth.

"Hah!" he laughed pitifully at his own joke. The laugh was filled with so much bitterness that even Vermouth dropped her poker face, briefly glancing down at him in mild worry. There was definitely very little humor in that bout of laughter. "Fat hope for me, especially with so many incompetent fools in my organization lately! Perhaps a restructure of my executive group might be imminent…" he mused with a finger to his chin.

Before he could consider the idea any further, his work phone vibrated and succeeded in interrupting his morbid thoughts. Reaching into a pocket hidden within his green sweater, he pulled out a sleek black flip phone. Unlocking it by using the fingerprint-sensitive lock, his eyes quickly scanned the message that had been sent to him.

' _Mission was successful.  
The blood of that traitor has been spilt. Her death was confirmed by Vermouth and Bourbon.  
\- Gin_'

Mitsuhiko gave a bitter laugh at that statement. He couldn't help himself — Gin had no idea _just_ how right he was. After all, the Black Organization member Sherry was indeed dead: she'd died the exact moment her sister Miyano Akemi was killed by Gin. But _Haibara Ai_ , on the other hand, was still very much alive.

He closed his eyes as he continued to chuckle darkly. After he finally calmed down, he clicked out of his message inbox and entered the draft folder. That unsent message that pinpointed Haibara's—Sherry's—hiding place still lay unsent in his phone. 22 Beika Street, District 2… looking back, it was so blatantly obvious where that address was that he didn't even need a map or a GPS satellite to know the answer to that question. It was where Agasa-hakase's house was situated.

Despite currently wearing a jacket in the warm weather, he couldn't help but shudder involuntarily. Mitsuhiko couldn't deny that perhaps it was a blessing that he hadn't been hasty and jumped the gun back then. He actually liked the kooky old professor that acted as a surrogate grandfather to him and the rest of the Detective Boys. It would have definitely been a shame if Professor Agasa had been unfairly snuffed out by his own hand.

"Boss?"

He blinked at Vermouth's concerned tone, realizing that he had dazed out. Shaking his head vigorously to snap himself out of his stupor, he slipped the phone back and proceeded to give an order. "Let's go," he lamented in a tired voice that really didn't sound like it came out of a seven-year-old's mouth. "There's nothing left for us to do here."

Vermouth nodded in affirmation and proceeded to walk forward, with Mitsuhiko strolling closely behind. Taking one last glance at the Suzuki family's famous steam locomotive, he used his left hand to slip off the pass ring wrapped around his right index finger.

He glared at the bronze ring before unceremoniously letting it fall onto the ground, where it landed with a _clack_. "Graghh!" With a bout of rage that rarely adjourned the normally cheerful freckled boy's face, he used his shoe to kick the object away like it was an insignificant little pebble. After bouncing twice, the Mystery Train pass ring was flung into some shrubs by the footpath, out of his sight. He tsked in annoyance. Who would have thought that the train pass was ironically, a perfect analogy of his current situation?

Just barely out of his reach, almost within his grasp… and despite all that, impossible for him to attain.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

So yeah. Detective Boys. APTX-4869 shrunken Shonen Tantei-dan=Boss is another crack theory that's been theorized for forever, namely for the shock factor. Theories about them being BO boss are usually quite absurd, but I do like the idea… even though it's quite unbelievable thanks to the abundance of DB cases, which would mean that if this really was true in canon a whole bunch of DB characterization would be very screwed.

Also, for _some_ reason, Japan really likes the idea of Mitsuhiko being the shrunken one out of the three. Out of all of the Detective Boys, he (and Ayumi to a certain extent) is the one most usually cited to possibly be the boss. Anyway, I actually really had fun writing this one, even though it ended up turning into angst halfway through. I didn't mean it, I swear!


End file.
